“Mom, stay here.” Kestrel’s voice was low and serious, which was a tone he didn’t often employ when speaking with his mother. Talya frowned as she popped her head up from the shrub she’d been inspecting, glancing first at her son and then off in the direction he was looking. There was a mare near the shoreline who hadn’t been there the last time she had looked, and there was a stallion too. New friends? Talya smiled and went to step toward them, but Kestrel pinned his burned-gold ears and snorted at her. “Stay here.”
His mother never took it well when he was more serious. Kestrel did not know all the trauma life had inflicted on her, but he’d been witness to some of her dark moments and understood enough that he tried not to be forceful or serious with her. He saw the fear flicker across his mother’s face and felt terrible, but he didn’t have the time for this - Kestrel needed to get over and see what was happening with the strangers now.
“Please, mom, just go get Dayflower and play by the oasis.” That’d keep his family nice and safe, away from whatever was happening here. “Please,” he begged again, voice a little more urgent. Talya frowned at him, looked back off at the duo in the distance, then back again before she nodded and turned about. Kestrel knew by the time he got back to her she’d have “forgotten” all about it, but he didn’t have that luxury.
Tossing his head he started off after the pair just in time to watch the stallion pin his ears, stepping into the mare’s space with an apparent desire to drive her back into the sea she’d just emerged from. “What’s going on here?” He asked as he drew closer, adrenaline starting to race through his veins, skin feeling hot and itchy, energy building. He looked at the stallion rather than the mare, accusations clear across his face. “It doesn’t look like she has any interest in going anywhere with you, so why don’t you beat it?” It was rare for Kestrel to sound or look intimidating, but he did then. All the work he put in to learn to fight in order to protect his mother and his sisters was for this; he’d never intended to get involved in another horse’s problems, but if he could help someone, Kestrel was going to do just that.
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